Sanctions against Plahotniuc - a signal from the United States on the eve of elections in Moldova

This week began on an American note in Moldova. The State Department of the United States of America has imposed personal sanctions against the Moldovan oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, who has been put on the criminal wanted list by local authorities. Although Mike Pompeo’s statement links the sanctions to Plahotniuc’s corruption and criminal activities, there is little doubt in Chisinau itself that American sanctions will now become an important element of the election campaign in Moldova.

Rise of the Foot Soldier

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In 2009, a de facto coup took place in Moldova: the pro-European opposition, dissatisfied with the results of the parliamentary elections, destroyed and burned the parliament buildings and the presidential residence. The Communist Party was stunned, President Voronin resigned, and the Alliance for European Integration came to power in the country. Plahotniuc in advance became the main sponsor of one of the parties of the Alliance for Euro - the Democratic Party in Moldova (PDM). Soon he begins a political career - in December 2010 he was elected to the Moldovan parliament on the list of the Democratic Party. Especially for him, the country's highest legislative body is creating the position of first vice-speaker of parliament. During those same years, information about his fabulous fortune and the ways in which he acquired it was leaked to the press. For his mastery of intrigue and behind-the-scenes struggles, Plahotniuc is called the “Puppeteer” of Moldovan politics.

In 2013-2015, the Alliance for European Integration was bursting at the seams due to the internecine war unleashed by Vladimir Plahotniuc against the leader of the “union” Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Filat. Events developed like in a political thriller. Filat’s supporters achieved the annulment of the post of first deputy speaker of parliament and publicly criticized the “Puppeteer”. Plahotniuc forced them to publicly apologize. And already in 2015, he organized and carried out an entire special operation, which ended with the arrest and conviction of Filat for corruption with a ban on holding public office.

Puppet show

From the fall of 2015 to June 2019, Vlad Plahotniuc becomes the main manager in the political space of Moldova. Not a single important political decision was made without the consent of its representatives, and the PDM became the largest center of power in the country. Joint protests of pro-Russian and pro-European oppositionists in the winter of 2015-2016 failed. While the opposition was storming the parliament building in Chisinau, Vladimir Plahotniuc in Bucharest convinced Victoria Nuland of unquestioningly respecting US interests during his sole rule. Immediately after this, opposition protests died down.

The victory of former communist Igor Dodon, now the leader of the Party of Socialists, in the presidential elections in November 2016 is still associated by many with the personal support of the “Puppeteer”. Although Dodon went to the elections with clearly pro-Russian slogans, for Plahotniuc he turned out to be completely harmless.

Outwardly, he and Dodon played exactly opposite roles. Plahotniuc at receptions and press conferences declared his pro-European, pro-Western political views. At the same time, President Dodon announced the establishment of ties with the Russian Federation, etc. At the same time, in parliament, the PDM and PSRM factions almost always voted unanimously on the most important issues. For example, in the summer of 2017, the socialists gave the democrats the necessary votes to introduce a mixed system of election to parliament. Two years later, this mechanism allowed the PDM to create one of the largest parliamentary factions, contrary to all expert forecasts. The technology of “buckwheat” (mass bribery of voters by candidates for deputies in the district by distributing minimal food packages) has given excellent results on Moldovan soil.

Games of good and bad

During the same period, Plahotniuc and the democrats made many anti-Russian decisions. They declared Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin persona non grata, blocked the work of the joint Moldovan-Russian intergovernmental commission, banned the broadcast of Russian news in the country, repeatedly publicly criticized the authorities of the Russian Federation and their foreign policy, and blocked the entry of Russian officers for service. in the peacekeeping contingent in Transnistria. The socialists were unable to prevent or subsequently cancel any of these actions and decisions. If President Dodon refused to sign this or that government resolution or law adopted by parliament, then he was simply removed and the document was signed instead by the prime minister appointed from the PDM.

The Russian authorities responded by accusing Plahotniuc of organizing a number of crimes: from preparing the murder of political opponents to creating a mafia structure for the supply of drugs from North Africa to the territory of the Russian Federation. For all charges, there is a court decision on arrest in absentia; the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has put Plahotniuc on the wanted list. However, Interpol has so far not given effect to the Russian request, considering them politically motivated.

Another consequence of the unnamed alliance between PSRM and PDM was the complete purge of all left parties that could compete with the Socialist Party. The leader of Our Party, Renato Usatii, fled Moldova, giving up the post of mayor of the “northern capital” – Balti. They were going to arrest him. Criminal cases were brought against his supporters en masse. Another left-wing politician, Grigory Petrenko, was repeatedly imprisoned and eventually fled to Germany, where he asked for political asylum.

All threats to the oligarch's regime were suppressed. To fight dissidents, he used both state resources: the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Information and Security Service, the Anti-Corruption Center, and the personal army created under him with its own security service. The number of wiretapped politicians, journalists, public figures and opposition figures has reached its highest level in the last 25 years. At the same time, the economy in Moldova stagnated, and the level of corruption and the practice of raider takeover of business reached previously unprecedented heights. We should not forget that all this happened under the banner of European integration and the promises of the ruling Democratic Party to introduce the best European practices. Hypocrisy made even Europeans sick, and even at the dawn of Plahotniuc’s rise to full power, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjörn Youngland called the Republic of Moldova a “captured state.”

Last season

Liberation from the oligarchic regime came to the citizens of Moldova from outside. In June 2019, the ambassadors of the Russian Federation, the United States and the European Union put pressure on the Party of Socialists and the pro-European PAS and Platform DA, forcing them to create an anti-oligarchic coalition. Vlad Plahotniuc and the Democratic Party declared this coalition illegal through the Constitutional Court. The PDM declared Dodon a traitor, and the leaders of PAS and the DA Platform, Maia Sandu and Andrei Nastase, as naive fools. Out of inertia, Plahotniuc accused the Russian special services of attempting to overthrow the regime, but no one believed him anymore. On June 16, the US Ambassador to the Republic of Moldova, Derek Hogan, went to the office of the Democratic Party, talked with Plahotniuc face to face for ten minutes, and the latter gave up. The puppeteer and his closest supporters fled the country - the new government accused him of a wide range of crimes and put him on the wanted list.

However, Plahotniuc is still invisibly present in Moldovan politics. He still maintains contact with PDM deputies. The November vote of no confidence in the government of Maia Sandu put forward by the socialists, the collapse of the anti-oligarchic coalition of the PSRM and pro-European parties, and the creation of the coalition of the Socialist Party and the Democratic Party are also widely associated with the continued participation and influence of the Puppeteer in political processes. It became obvious that the “liberation of Moldova” was announced prematurely. In the context of the upcoming presidential elections this year, the threat of Plahotniuc’s influence on Moldovan politics in the eyes of Western development partners turned out to be too high.

The fact is that the Moldovan presidential elections in 2020 are becoming an important factor of geopolitical influence in the region. Plahotniuc was the last link in the chain of Eastern European oligarch politicians Poroshenko-Plahotniuc-Dragnea. After his expulsion, it was the turn of the destruction of the control system he had built. It is under this slogan that PAS leader Maia Sandu, a graduate of Harvard and the World Bank, who is clearly supported by the United States and the European Union, is running for election. Through the efforts of Plahotniuc and the socialists, Igor Dodon, the former junior partner of the Puppeteer, appropriated the monopoly right to represent Russia in this confrontation.

Regardless of how this episode of the political season ends, all that is clear for now is that residents of Moldova prefer to follow developments from afar. Mass migration from the country over the past six years has led to the exodus of almost a third of the population.